Skill Development in Rural Areas through CBVT

1. Skill Development in Rural Areas through CBVT R. Narasimham Chairman, Expert Committee for Developing courses in Vocational Rehab, Rehab Social Work etc… (Rehabilitation Council of India) National Congress on Skill Development & Entrepreneurship - 2013 CBVT @ Nat Cong

2. Introduction • As per Census 2001 there is a varying urbanization in different parts of the country, leaving a 61.53% in the rural areas. • The problems faced by the disabled is compounded by multifarious handicaps such as hunger, disease, squalor, illiteracy and a daily battle for the basic necessities of life in the villages. • Despite the difference in the urbanization, a total of 74.8% of the disabled population lives in the rural areas. CBVT @ Nat Cong

3. CBR a Necessity • Community Based Rehab as understood today is a necessity and not just a tool to get noticed by public for several reasons. • Most prominent among them being the lack of access for the pwd living in rural and far flung areas. • Services & skills for management of pwd are only available in urban & at the most in district level towns. • CBR is both simple & complex for the type of services they render. • Institutions have been providing episodic services on medical intervention, family guidance & counseling, and ability aids. • The present paper looks at another important component of economic rehab & empowerment of pwd living in the rural & semi urban areas. CBVT @ Nat Cong

4. What is CBR? • CBR is in a way part of empowerment of the pwd living in far flung areas. • “CBR is a strategy within general community development for rehabilitation, equalization of opportunities and social inclusion of all children and adults with disabilities. CBR is implemented through the combined efforts of people with disabilities themselves, their families and communities, and the appropriate health, education, vocational and social services” 8 – World Health Organization (1994) • "A strategy within community development for the rehabilitation, equalization of opportunities and social integration of all people with disabilities" - United Nations • "CBR is a strategy for enhancing the quality of life of disabled people by improving service delivery, by providing more equitable opportunities and by promoting and protecting their human rights” - EinarHelander, Expert on CBR CBVT @ Nat Cong

5. CBR - How • Many institutions follow community-oriented approaches. Services are provided at the level of community through an outreach clinic or camp based approach. • Program is guided by the institution and directed by the availability of the resources. Mostly they are disability specific. • The patients and community are only the beneficiaries. e.g. as and when appliances like wheelchair, tricycle, or calipers become available, they get distributed whether it is appropriate or not. However, these strategies are inadequate to respond to the needs and expectations of the disabled and their community. • Now the Issues CBVT @ Nat Cong

6. Projected Population of pwd by 2016* CBVT @ Nat Cong

7. Literacy Levels of different categories NSSO (2002) Study (Per 1000 ) CBVT @ Nat Cong

8. Education & Skills of pwd CBVT @ Nat Cong

9. Survey of DDRCs • In a Status survey conducted in 50 DDRCs on a stratified sampling method covering all the States/ UTs in the country for the Min. of SJE, I had the opportunity to visit more than 30 DDRCs and compiled information through other experienced Rehab Professionals who covered the other 20 DDRCs • It is found that the DDRCs have made a dent in reaching the rural disabled at grass root level. • Study has found that on an average 1697 pwd per year per DDRC were provided with different types of services during 2002 – 2007 • A total of 97,757 with a statistical average of about 19551.4 ability aids per year have been distributed at an average of 3910.3 per Centre per year. • The largest constituent of beneficiaries is those receiving Hearing Aids followed by Others (mostly Calipers, crutches, special shoes etc...) and then Tricycles. • Hardly a total of 1,634 out of 3,81,748 constituting an insignificant percentage of the total pwd covered have been provided with vocational services. There is a dire need in this area Districts covered in the Study CBVT @ Nat Cong

10. Beneficiaries of DDRCs in the Country CBVT @ Nat Cong

11. School Dropout rates in Tamilnadu* CBVT @ Nat Cong

12. Vocational Rehabilitation • Vocational training & employment are the final and most vital component of social inclusion of the pwd. • The Ministry of Labour is mandated to carry out these tasks among the population with as many as 5200 ITIs providing training in 128 technical and non technical trades with an annual intake of about 7.5 lakhs. • There are 21 Vocational Rehabilitation Centres for Handicapped (VRCs) in the country. Other than these, penetration of skill training has been limited to sporadic efforts by the NGOs • All these VRCs are in urban areas but they do carry out outreach services. CBVT @ Nat Cong

13. Outreach Programs • Needless to say most of the Services for the pwd are in urban areas and the services to the rural areas are provided through Outreach Services. • Conducting Outreach Programs or under the name of Community Based Rehabilitation is not new. As early as the early 1940s, the Christian Medical College & Hospital at Vellore in South India has been taking their medical & preventive services to the rural areas in a radius of more than 50 miles, focusing mainly on communicable diseases & Leprosy which was endemic in that area then. • Subsequently NGOs working with the disabled also started the CBR work, but confined it to the disability they served and services are confined to basic techniques of therapy. • The concept of CBR in Vocational Rehabilitation was started in VRC Delhi (Estt 1971) in 1974 and is now a regular feature of its services in all VRCs. Evaluation in progress at Bijwasan CBVT @ Nat Cong

14. Concept Development • Finding that the Rehab Camps yielded only limited success a new skill development program to train the disabled was initiated • The Author had opportunity to introduce community based vocational training (CBVT) while working in Ahmedabad at Pirana ( 18 Kms) in 1989. • A customized skill development program was developed in assembling and repair of 2 – Band Radios. (That was the Market then) 10 persons with Locomotor disabilities were included. The program was coordinated by the Dargah authorities • Since then several such programs were conducted by the Author in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka. • Now all the VRCs carry out CBVT programs as part of their regular service. • Over 250 modules have been developed. This is not an exhaustive list but covers many traditional, urban and rural based, technical, non technical, animal husbandry, poultry, farm equipment and agricultural operations. • Education is not a constraint. Training is provided suited to abilities. CBVT @ Nat Cong

15. Concept • The concept works on the premise that a job does not necessarily require long term training, but skills could be acquired in certain operations of the Job. • Even certain components of the Job/ Job operations can provide a livelihood • Even the highly qualified people use only a few of the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills acquired by them during their education or professional training. • The long term training and higher education may help them in gaining better access and immediate placement in a better status in a job. • However, since most of the pwd are less educated and live in inaccessible areas, it is necessary that the pwd are given vocational training in marketable skills. • Specific skills suited to the local employment market are developed and training is provided in one of the operations of an occupation. CBVT @ Nat Cong

16. Objectives • Provide vocational training suited to local employment market in one of the operations in a job profile through short term program • Training in these skills is best conducted by community members who, with minimal assistance, can easily transfer their skills and knowledge to people with disabilities. • Creation of micro and macro income-generation opportunities: • Help pwd access micro and macro income-generation activities, including obtaining financial credit through existing systems. CBVT @ Nat Cong

17. Administrative aspect • Preliminary contacts with local NGO/ CBO and encourage them to conduct a Camp to screen suitable pwd training. • Study employment opportunities available in the area, general educational attainment in the community, availability of training facilities, skilled workers / craftsman and other infrastructure • Skills required to suit local market and can be acquired in a period of not more than 3 months identified • pwd who can undergo the identified skill training are selected. Selection based on physical and intellectual abilities. Education may not be the sole criterion, even though it may be one of them. • Syllabus with weekly and daily targets of skills to be achieved should be worked out. CBVT @ Nat Cong

18. Adm - Contd • Select a local trainer/ skilled person/ artisan . Orient him through the regular trainer of the Institute in the management of the disabled, and techniques of transfer of skills. • Persuade the local N.G.O. to provide space to conduct the training for the period, pay honorarium to the local trainer and where feasible meet the cost of raw material required. • Provide all technical know-how in the conduct of the training and also Tools and Equipment, Scholarship, conducting the test and certification. • Provide post-training follow up to ensure placement services either in the form of wage paid employment or self-employment or any other Supported Employment • Also arrange either through donations or otherwise Tool-kits to those completing the training and also ability aids. CBVT @ Nat Cong

19. Success Stories • Skill Training in House Wiring & repair of domestic appliances – Dahanu Rd – Locomotor & Hearing impairments • Training in Children’s garments – Amravati – Locomotor & Hearing Impairments • Training in Radio Assembly – Wada – Locomotor disabilities • Training in manufacture of Sanitary Pads and screen Printing – Bhiwandi Intellectual Impairment CBVT @ Nat Cong

20. Post Training rehab • During a survey carried out after about one year it was found almost 83% were found engaged in economic activities. • Some were formed into Self Help Groups to take up production work • Group Self employment opportunities were created and required assistance provided • Specific training suited to local employers were provided. CBVT @ Nat Cong

21. Group Employment – Devanahalli, Bangalore Rural dist Collaboration: Panchayat/ Block Dev Office No trained: 15 persons (Including girls) No. of hours: 120 hrs Content: Housewiring, fitting of fans, assembling decorative bulbs, use of amplifiers and other related work Output: 6 assisted in finding jobs with local contractors Another Six helped to form a group. Group Loan was procured for setting a Central Call Centre for electrical repair, hiring of Amplifiers, lighting for marriages/ functions CBVT @ Nat Cong

22. Self Help Group, Kaiwara, Kolar Dist • Collaborator: NABARD, MS Ramiah Medical College, KaiwaraSamsthanam • No. Trained: 20 • No. of hours: 120 • Content: book binding, manufacture of note books, envelopes, spiral binding and rubber stamp making • Space & Infrastructure facilities by Kaiwara Samsthanam & M.S. Ramiah Medical College • Result: Formed Self Help Group. Machinery was provided by NABARD for initial start CBVT @ Nat Cong

23. Modular Employment Skills • DteGenl of Emp & Trg have identified more than 250 skills which can be acquired in 60 to 500 hrs under the Skill Development Program of the Govt. • While some of them can be accessed by the pwd also, major issue is disability, distance and destitution. • Almost all the Training Programs are in urban areas. • The time frame provided is not adequate for some of the skills especially for pwmr • Skill training program for pwd especially for the rural and less literate has to be custom made • Repetition of the same training program may be avoided unless there is scope for economic rehabilitation. CBVT @ Nat Cong

24. Conclusion • Services, especially vocational, are available in the rural areas also for the pwd. There are weaknesses and constraints in delivery. • Rehab professionals have to make efforts to swim along and gain access to these services. • We can organize CBVT programs in addition to the present educative and therapeutic services rendered in the CBR • CBVT has to be tailored to suit employment market in the area and learning constraints of each group of disability. • It should not be static. The examples of syllabus portrayed are suggestive and should be tailored to the needs of the market. • Present Employment Modular Skills, though good to some extent are repeated ad nauseumand are not accessible to pwd because of distances and disability & destitution • Majority of these training programs are conducted by Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) or other similar organizations. • The Institutions working for pwd may work in collaboration with them to design syllabus for these CBVT programs CBVT @ Nat Cong

25. Pervasive Attitude Community Ownership Strengthen families Participating pwd CBR Worker Internal & External Resources Perfect CBVT Program Stimulus Multi sectoral Linkages Select appropriate vocational skill Employment/ Self Employment Opportunities Referral Services Skill Training Assistive Technology CBVT @ Nat Cong

26. CBVT in Flower Bouquet - VRC Guwahati Number: 16 (Male & Female) Duration: 1 Month (120 hrs) Eligibility: 6th Standard, Edu not a constraint Disability : Locomotor & Hearing Impairment. Emp. Potentiality: Self Employment • TOOLS & RAW MATERIAL Chisel , Knife, Bamboo Basket ( Different Varieties), Flowers (Varieties), Paste, Thermacol, Objective:  • To train the trainees in the following operations Bunches and Bouquets, Flower Basket, Flower Vase, Life size bouquet • Skills: Concept on Floral Supplies and Equipment  , Wire and Taping Technique , Floral Design Forms, Round Bouquet-Silk, Care and Handling of Fresh Flowers, Floral Containers, Flower and Foliage(Plant) Identification, Floral Pricing, Showpiece with Fresh Flowers CBVT @ Nat Cong

27. Syllabus for CBVT in RepairingOf Domestic Appliances (Electrical) CBVT @ Nat Cong

28. Syllabus for CBVT in RepairingOf Domestic Appliances (Electrical) - contd CBVT @ Nat Cong

29. Module on Stitching of bags – for pwmr CBVT @ Nat Cong

30. AmantramaksharamNasti: NastiMoolamanaushadham: AyogyohPurushoNasti: YojakastatraDurlabhahaEvery letter a Mantra; Every root a medicine;No person is totally useless; User is hard to locate CBVT @ Nat Cong

31. R. Narasimham Consultant (Vocational Rehabilitation) Chennai / Hyderabad Phone: 040 – 4020 2698 Mobile: 98407 14181/ 80088 88747 Email- rnsimham@gmail.com Website: www.aidthedisabled.org Thank you CBVT @ Nat Cong